Press Releases

Palo Alto resident Stephanie Martinson was honored in the Capitol this week as the California Legislature celebrated the accomplishments and advocacy of more than 110 women from around the state in the 2018 Woman of the Year ceremonies. State Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, named Ms. Martinson the 2018 Woman of the Year for the 13th District. On Monday, accompanied by her family, she traveled to the state Capitol to join honorees from other legislative districts for ceremonies conducted in the Senate and the Assembly by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.

State Senator Jerry Hill introduced legislation today to drive home the point to young people that it’s illegal to consume marijuana and get behind the wheel. SB 1273 establishes a zero-tolerance policy for individuals under 21 who drive under the influence of marijuana, and mirrors existing law for young adults and minors who drive under the influence of alcohol.

Amid mounting concerns about stolen and lost police guns and the use of surveillance technology and the data it harvests, state Senator Jerry Hill introduced legislation today to require police to track and regularly inventory their firearms and to draw up rules on deployment of surveillance technology.

He also presses forward with new legislation to reduce the fine for rolling ‘right-on-red’ turns, aid a nonprofit run by a Peninsula nun to provide housing for low-income families, and extend a pilot program allowing nonviolent young adult felons to serve their time in juvenile hall not jail.

With help from the California National Guard and community leaders, SSF Magnolia Center senior citizens sent 1,800 handmade valentines to servicemen and women from the Golden State who have been mobilized to active duty and deployed in Afghanistan and the Greater Middle East, Ukraine, Kosovo, Africa and across the Americas.

State Senator Jerry Hill introduced legislation to require that the savings privately owned utilities reap from recent federal tax changes are passed along to customers in the form of reduced rates. “The savings that these utilities realize must be returned to ratepayers,” said Senator Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. “Anything else would be grossly unfair.”

State Senator Jerry Hill urged the California Public Utilities Commission in a letter today to ensure that utilities reaping a windfall in savings from federal tax cuts to corporations pass those savings along to ratepayers. “This is the only fair thing to do,” said Senator Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.

State Senator Jerry Hill, as chair of the Subcommittee on Gas, Electric and Transportation Safety, announced today that he will hold a hearing January 26 in Santa Rosa with North Bay Senators Bill Dodd and Mike McGuire and Assemblymembers Marc Levine and Jim Wood to examine utilities’ best practices to prevent and respond to wildfires.

Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, joined by Senators Jerry Hill and Ben Allen, introduced legislation today to protect California residents from the targeted federal tax increases that were enacted in the GOP’s recent tax reform.